


Line of Succession

by Yalu



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkwardness, Community: love_bingo, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-24 23:31:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Camelot needs an heir, and Gwen isn't pregnant. post-s5, Gwen-Merlin friendship</p>
            </blockquote>





	Line of Succession

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [love_bingo](http://love-bingo.livejournal.com) Round Three. Prompt: Indecent proposal.
> 
> Thanks go to Trojie for being such a hard-working beta and saving me from my own bad habits.  
> 

"The queen asked to see me."

The guard outside Arth- Gwen's chamber was waving him in before he finished three words - no one was in the mood to talk or insist on formality, not so soon after the king's funeral.

Merlin shuffled in, as heavy as if all the water of the lake was being dragged behind him. Everything looked the same - bits of Arthur everywhere, his things scattered and displayed and mixed with some of Gwen's, as it had been since their wedding. His practice armour was still propped up in one corner where Merlin had left it. He'd never finished polishing the gauntlets.

Gwen was sitting at the table in one of her plainest gowns, hands twisted together in her lap. She looked nervous, and smiled only a little when he came in. "Merlin," she said, voice tight. "Come in, sit down."

Arthur would have made him stand for at least a minute and then kicked out a chair and called him an idiot. Merlin quietly took the seat next to her. "What's wrong?"

She fidgeted. "I need your help. It's the kingdom. Me, and the kingdom, I mean. Arthur made it clear that I was to rule if he-" She pressed her lips together hard and forced down a breath. "But my claim to the throne is by marriage. I can't appoint my successor the way he did."

Merlin nodded slowly, watching her fingers twist her ring, Arthur's signet ring, around and around. It was too big, kept slipping off. "Sir Geoffrey told me."

Gwen jumped. "He did? What did he say?"

Merlin straightened up a bit and squinted at her, confused. "Well, he told Gaius. I was just nearby."

"When was this?"

It took effort to dredge up the details. "Um... yesterday. Morning? I'm not sure."

"But what did he say, exactly? What was the context?"

Merlin shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know. He was offering condolences. Everyone is. He said, er... he said it's a pity Arthur didn't name a line of succession, in case you weren't feeling up to it? I think?"

Gwen's breath hitched and she buried her face in her hands miserably. Caught off-guard, Merlin stared for a moment before dragging his chair close enough to put an arm around her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," said Gwen, scrubbing her eyes and pulling herself together. "I'm just so worried. Arthur gave everything for Camelot. I can't stand the thought that someday it will all be for nothing."

"It won't," promised Merlin, tightening his arm. "You can do this, Gwen. You're already a great queen. You're fair and just and the people love you. You'll make Arthur proud."

"Thank you, Merlin," she said, "but that's not the trouble." She squeezed his hand gratefully but carefully shuffled out of the hug and put some space between them. Merlin frowned.

"Then what is?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "Very soon, people are going to begin to ask if I'm carrying Arthur's heir. They're already hinting."

Geoffrey, he realised. That's why he'd come to Gaius. And why he'd started by asking after everyone's health - Gaius', Merlin's, and then Gwen's. No wonder Gaius had been so cold when he'd snapped that it was no one's business but Gwen's own until she chose to share.

"You're not pregnant," said Merlin, and it was barely a question.

"No, I'm not." Gwen looked right at him, gripping the signet ring so tight her fingers turned white. "But for the sake of the kingdom, I need to be."

It only took a few seconds to figure out what she was asking.

"Gwen!" he cried. "You can't be serious."

"I _know_ ," she wailed. "I know, I know, I'm sorry. I _hate_ this, I hate that I even have to think about it, but I do and I have and I've thought it through and it could work. Any child would look more like me than its father and there's only a few people I trust to let me pretend their son is Arthur's but Sir Leon is married and I really don't know Percival that well but I _know_ you, Merlin, and you were as close to Arthur as I was, I know he'd want it to be you, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry but I'm desperate and I can't let Camelot down, not like this-"

Merlin finally got his wits together enough to squeeze her hands and shake his head. "Gwen, it's okay, Gwen - calm down," he said. "I understand."

She took a deep breath and let it out, but didn't look relieved; she looked wary. "You do?"

"You're looking out for the kingdom," he said. "That's what a queen should do." Gwen snorted and shook her head.

"I'm plotting to lie to my people and make my own child fatherless," she muttered. "That's being a good queen?"

"Sometimes, I suppose?" said Merlin. He shrugged. "But it's for Camelot. I know Arthur would forgive you."

Gwen looked warily at him. "So you... you want to?"

"I don't _want_ to. I really, really don't _want_ to. I mean- That sounds horrible, I'm sorry, it's not you - you're beautiful, you're the kindest person ever and you're my friend and I love you, but it's..."

"Awkward," she finished. "We're friends, and it's awkward."

Merlin leaned on the table, rubbing his head. "Yeah."

For long minutes neither of them said anything, and the silence stretched out. Gwen squirmed, eyes darting up from her lap just long enough to glance at Merlin, who was staring at the table, biting his lip, before jerking her gaze back to the ring she couldn't stop fiddling with. Waiting. "It can't be now," she blurted out when the silence got too much. "Tomorrow, maybe. I - I could pretend I'm ill, you could say you're bringing something from Gaius-"

"Gwen, I can't."

She slumped, looking ten times more relieved than confused, but still confused. Her brow wrinkled. "I'm sorry?"

"I understand, I do. But I can't." Merlin turned to look at her earnestly. "I agree with everything you said and you're right, it's the best thing for Camelot, but I just _can't_."

Gwen nodded slowly. "Because of how you feel about Arthur."

Merlin ducked for a moment, disarmed, but then shook his head. "It's not that. I mean, it is, so much, but that's not... Gwen, I have magic."

It felt like dropping a brick. She knew, and he knew she knew, and she knew that he knew that she knew, but it was the first time it had been said out loud and for a moment Gwen was lost for words. "I-I am planning to change the laws," she managed. "It'll have to be slow, but in a few years..."

Merlin was shaking his head again. "That's not it."

He bit his lip, strained. Gwen waited patiently, her turn to reach out and squeeze his hands. "Then what is?" she asked.

Merlin relaxed a bit and let out a breath. "My father... had magic. He could command dragons. That gift was passed down to me." (Gwen's eyes widened. She barely managed not to interrupt.) "Morgana and Morgause, they were sisters, both with magic. I think their mother had it. It runs in Druid families too. And I'm so powerful, I'm sure any kid I have will inherit it."

"A magical prince," said Gwen, shaking her head, eyebrows high. "We could handle that."

"No, no you couldn't. We couldn't. Even with Gaius and Leon and Percival in on it, we couldn't. Gwen, I was making things fly across the room before I could walk. My mother struggled to hide it, and that was with just the two of us in our house in Ealdor. There's no _way_ to hide it from nurses and guards and everyone else in the castle who'll see him all the time." He shook his head. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head and offered a smile. "I understand. You're right, it won't work. I'm sorry I had to ask at all."

Relieved, and feeling strangely light for the first time in weeks, Merlin sat back and returned the smile. "Well, look on the bright side - we can't possibly ever have to talk about anything more awkward."

"We're certainly agreed on _that_ ," said Gwen, and they chuckled - probably for a lot longer than it deserved, but it was healing. And, it meant longer until they had to come back to the troubling original question.

"I suppose," Gwen said after a while, looking down, "that asking Sir Percival won't be so bad. He's a good man. And not being so close to him might make it easier." She sat stiffly, shoulders hunched, and Merlin winced for her.

"There's got to be another way."

"I don't know of any. And you heard Geoffrey - I don't have the legal right to name a successor that isn't a Pendragon by blood." _And they're all dead_ was left unsaid - Arthur, but Morgana too. Merlin squeezed her hand.

"You're the queen, Gwen, you can change the law. No one's going to argue that you don't have a choice - they're on your side, you know."

She looked up wryly. "Not everyone. A lot of the noblemen have been against me from the start."

"But the knights will support you," said Merlin. "We all want the same thing - someone to lead Camelot. Geoffrey too. He's a stick in the mud but if he looks hard enough he'll be able to find a loophole, I'm sure of it."

Gwen turned to him, head tilted curiously. Whatever she was looking for, she seemed to find it in his face, and smiled warmly. "I'm so glad you're here, Merlin," she said. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

He shrugged, feeling his ears turn red and his chest fill up with all the things he could never put into words. "I'm not going anywhere," he said, quietly. "I promise."

She squeezed his hand. "Well," she said, "if you think consulting Geoffrey will help, then we should send for him. Sir Leon and Percival too, I think, and Gaius. We should know all our options." She sat up in her chair again, back straight and looking queenly in spite of the worry that was still weighing on her, and Merlin would bet she had no idea she was doing it. "Will you send for them, Merlin? And maybe a plate from the kitchen. I think we're going to be here a while."


End file.
